Good pools that let you keep some of your block reward?

[philipma1957]

I'm pointed at mmpool now.   I love the way it supports all these small coins with merged mining.  I noticed that it said something about LTC in the cgminer window, yet I don't remember that being one of the coin choices.  What was that about? 

They add and take away various coins at various times.

You mention your are small.  What is small  for you? A  500gh s-3  antminer is fairly small  A 10 gh compact usb stick is really small.  down to a .333 usb stick from asic miner which is about as small as you can be.

so how small are your miners?

[paramind22]

I'm pointed at mmpool now.   I love the way it supports all these small coins with merged mining.  I noticed that it said something about LTC in the cgminer window, yet I don't remember that being one of the coin choices.  What was that about?  

They add and take away various coins at various times.

You mention your are small.  What is small  for you? A  500gh s-3  antminer is fairly small  A 10 gh compact usb stick is really small.  down to a .333 usb stick from asic miner which is about as small as you can be.

so how small are your miners?

Let's just say I don't want anyone to mistake my miner for a soccer ball and kick it around....


(It's a gridseed orb, just bought Antminer S3, it will be here soon).

[philipma1957]

I'm pointed at mmpool now.   I love the way it supports all these small coins with merged mining.  I noticed that it said something about LTC in the cgminer window, yet I don't remember that being one of the coin choices.  What was that about?  

They add and take away various coins at various times.

You mention your are small.  What is small  for you? A  500gh s-3  antminer is fairly small  A 10 gh compact usb stick is really small.  down to a .333 usb stick from asic miner which is about as small as you can be.

so how small are your miners?

Let's just say I don't want anyone to mistake my miner for a soccer ball and kick it around....


(It's a gridseed orb, just bought Antminer S3, it will be here soon).

Okay at that scale of mining you are more hobby they anything else  mmpool is a good choice. Hopefully your power is free or next to free also hopefully you have need for the heat they give off.

[paramind22]

Are there good BTC pools that let you keep some of your block reward?

The best pool for this is mmpool.org

They give you all transaction fees.

so if you hit a block  with  .5 transaction fees  it is your bonus.

I mine with two pools kano.is  and mmpool.org


http://mmpool.org/  
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=559011.0

 I have hit 2 blocks here and have received the transaction fees twice

 he gives transaction fees to the block winner - downside small pool can take 1 month or more to hit a block.




https://www.kano.is/ d
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=789369.0
 
he splits transaction fees with all the miners- downside none the best pool  around


I mine 2.3 th with mmpool
I mine 23th with kano

I don't quite get what transaction fee is in btc.  It sounds much smaller than the block reward.  How much btc is it?  (please don't answer with a mathematical equation    )

I still don't see which pool in this thread of 4 pays something like 1/2 of a block reward (or 6.25 btc) to a block finder.

[ZACHM]

I don't quite get what transaction fee is in btc.  It sounds much smaller than the block reward.  How much btc is it?  (please don't answer with a mathematical equation    )

I still don't see which pool in this thread of 4 pays something like 1/2 of a block reward (or 6.25 btc) to a block finder.

Do you want to be paid a small percentage of every block found?

- OR -

Do you want to only be paid if you find the block?

Those are pretty much your options when it comes to mining.
There are some exceptions as mentioned in this thread:

• It sounds like mmpool pays the transaction fees to the block finder, that could be 0BTC to 1BTC, but I would say the average is around 0.2BTC
• bravo-mining (jonnybravo0311) adds extra incentive occasionally, those are out of his pocket and are just bonuses when he feels like it.
  

Otherwise, for the most part it is one or the other.
If you want to only be paid when you find the block you will get 12.5+BTC, then you want to use (chances of you ever getting a block are extremely small):

• solo.ckpool  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=763510.0
  

If you want to be paid for all of your work (which is really what you probably should be doing) then use:

• kano.is  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=789369
• bravo-mining  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1330452.0
• mmpool  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=559011.0

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

[paramind22]

I don't quite get what transaction fee is in btc.  It sounds much smaller than the block reward.  How much btc is it?  (please don't answer with a mathematical equation    )

I still don't see which pool in this thread of 4 pays something like 1/2 of a block reward (or 6.25 btc) to a block finder.

Do you want to be paid a small percentage of every block found?

- OR -

Do you want to only be paid if you find the block?

Those are pretty much your options when it comes to mining.
There are some exceptions as mentioned in this thread:

• It sounds like mmpool pays the transaction fees to the block finder, that could be 0BTC to 1BTC, but I would say the average is around 0.2BTC
• bravo-mining (jonnybravo0311) adds extra incentive occasionally, those are out of his pocket and are just bonuses when he feels like it.
  

Otherwise, for the most part it is one or the other.
If you want to only be paid when you find the block you will get 12.5+BTC, then you want to use (chances of you ever getting a block are extremely small):

• solo.ckpool  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=763510.0
  

If you want to be paid for all of your work (which is really what you probably should be doing) then use:

• kano.is  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=789369
• bravo-mining  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1330452.0
• mmpool  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=559011.0

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

Thanks!

[jonnybravo0311]

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

With only a gridseed orb, he'd be squarely in the "dust" category when mining on kano's pool.  On a small pool like mine or mmpool, because we go for longer periods of time between blocks, his balance would likely be large enough to not be considered dust.

[paramind22]

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

With only a gridseed orb, he'd be squarely in the "dust" category when mining on kano's pool.  On a small pool like mine or mmpool, because we go for longer periods of time between blocks, his balance would likely be large enough to not be considered dust.

But with the Antminer S3, it would do better at Kano's pool?  I like the idea of diversifying and it seems maybe that's a good idea sometimes when using pools.  I'll probably point the orb at solo.ckpool.

[jonnybravo0311]

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

With only a gridseed orb, he'd be squarely in the "dust" category when mining on kano's pool.  On a small pool like mine or mmpool, because we go for longer periods of time between blocks, his balance would likely be large enough to not be considered dust.

But with the Antminer S3, it would do better at Kano's pool?  I like the idea of diversifying and it seems maybe that's a good idea sometimes when using pools.  I'll probably point the orb at solo.ckpool.

Use the orb as a lottery ticket... not a bad idea.  I have 5 Antminer U2 sticks that I have playing the lottery .

The S3 expects to earn 0.000428BTC per day currently.  Since kano's pool expects to find about 3 blocks a day, that means you'd expect to earn about 0.00014267BTC per block.  Not dust, but not very much over the threshold, either (anything 10,000 or under is dust).

[ZACHM]

Yes, the orb would be dust, so solo is a good idea.

And put the S3 on any of those three pools.
My only point with picking kano is that you will receive payouts more frequently (albeit small ones).

If you don't mind waiting weeks or possibly months for a payout (a larger one), then the smaller pools would be good.

In the end with such a small hashrate, the differences between any of the pools will be extremely small, a few pennies.

Shameless plug: 
If you are looking for more S3's I have some for sale: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1636524.0

[philipma1957]

Yes, the orb would be dust, so solo is a good idea.

And put the S3 on any of those three pools.
My only point with picking kano is that you will receive payouts more frequently (albeit small ones).

If you don't mind waiting weeks or possibly months for a payout (a larger one), then the smaller pools would be good.

In the end with such a small hashrate, the differences between any of the pools will be extremely small, a few pennies.

Shameless plug: 
If you are looking for more S3's I have some for sale: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1636524.0

his s3 is really close to dust on kano's pool.  and kano does not pay dust.

in fact  his first few blocks will be dust until he ramps upswards to the 450gh that a s3 does.

running a small piece of gear like the s3..  he may be better off with mmpool or bravo-mining .

I run  at four pools.  most goes to kano.is

 right now 2 s9's are at kano.is

bravo mining 0  but I will rent soon and point a bit to him.

mmpool 0 but I will rent soon and point a bit to him.

[ZACHM]

True, with only the one S3 he would be really close to dust.
But, he mentioned getting more miners so....

I had never tried mmpool before so i rearranged some of my rigs and have roughly 3.4 TH/s pointed there now.

[ethereumhunter]

for now, i think for mining bitcoin itself with low hardware spec is not recommended because the difficulty of bitcoin is really gets high so it needs high end spec hardware like antminer s9 but for antminer s9 is really expensive to buy.

[paramind22]

for now, i think for mining bitcoin itself with low hardware spec is not recommended because the difficulty of bitcoin is really gets high so it needs high end spec hardware like antminer s9 but for antminer s9 is really expensive to buy.

In another thread, it was said that using a Antminer produces the same amount of heat per dollar as a regular electric heater.  So, I'm getting the coins on top.  It can be more or less cold or cool here around 8 months out of the year.

[ZACHM]

That is what I am doing right now. My electricity cost is too high and my S3's are losing money.
But, with what they do make to offset the electric bill, it is cheaper than heating my house any other way.

[philipma1957]

for now, i think for mining bitcoin itself with low hardware spec is not recommended because the difficulty of bitcoin is really gets high so it needs high end spec hardware like antminer s9 but for antminer s9 is really expensive to buy.

In another thread, it was said that using a Antminer produces the same amount of heat per dollar as a regular electric heater.  So, I'm getting the coins on top.  It can be more or less cold or cool here around 8 months out of the year.

Yes 2 s-3 miners will use about 700 watts work well for,space heating.

[paramind22]

There was something not clarified in this thread.  mmpool says:

Part of the reward is paid out as Pay Per Share (PPS). This amount is available for withdrawal immediately. The rest is paid out using the Double Geometric Method (DGM) and this is paid out when a block is found. This depends on pool hash rate.

So, I've been mining here (various combos of S1, S3, and lesser) and I have 0.00505145 in DGM and 0.0 in PPS.  

It's taken a good amount of time and was expecting the payout because I hit the minimum amount listed (on front page it doesn't clarify
the DGM/PSS under payout).

Someone I know told me two weeks ago I should be with a bigger pool like Eligius, since the payout would be faster.  They have a .05 BTC threshold so thought that was strange that he said that.   But I can see this seems to be the case.  

[paramind22]

The bonuses offered by bravo-mining are nice and the idea of getting the tx fees on mmpool sounds good, but with what you are running for gear, it is very unlikely that you will find a block and get those rewards. You will find a more consistent payout at kano.is, because the pool it larger and finds blocks more often.

With only a gridseed orb, he'd be squarely in the "dust" category when mining on kano's pool.  On a small pool like mine or mmpool, because we go for longer periods of time between blocks, his balance would likely be large enough to not be considered dust.

But with the Antminer S3, it would do better at Kano's pool?  I like the idea of diversifying and it seems maybe that's a good idea sometimes when using pools.  I'll probably point the orb at solo.ckpool.

Use the orb as a lottery ticket... not a bad idea.  I have 5 Antminer U2 sticks that I have playing the lottery .

The S3 expects to earn 0.000428BTC per day currently.  Since kano's pool expects to find about 3 blocks a day, that means you'd expect to earn about 0.00014267BTC per block.  Not dust, but not very much over the threshold, either (anything 10,000 or under is dust).

Thanks.  This post clarified it more but only after I had some experience.  Hopefully anyone who is a noob might learn something from this thread besides myself.  It's almost like with a small pool you have the next step up from solo mining, because it might be 3 months or more before someone finds a block, and hence the time for you to get paid.  And I guess really small pools that only distribute earnings into payouts after a block is found by the pool will take much longer than that.

[paramind22]

Thanks for all the help.  Was reading the whole thread last night and a lot of great history and times.  It seems the best of both worlds, both getting paid for all you mine and playing a type of lottery.   I see that at certain times like now, the DGM will fall faster than I had hoped, and it was hard to keep it above the payout level with a very small ASIC.   So, with older ASICS, one is forced to keep a S1 or better miner here from time to time to stay above that threshold.

My PPS Total Shares for round will turn into BTC Payments for Round when a block is found?  What is the math on that?  I understand that this
figure is only knowable when the block is found.

I hear a lot of experienced people talk about keeping USB miners on pools as a type of lottery.  That is probablistically possible? (I understand not probable).  I wonder how the odds of that are compared to a state lottery.

[kano]

While the math is quite straight forward, my web pool calculator page also gives it:

http://tradebtc.net/bitcalc.php

You enter your hash rate at "Your Gh/s:" and press return, then look at:
"Chance of you finding a block in one day:"
i.e. if you mine for a full day at that hash rate.